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Romney’s Rose Garden Moment

Justin Lane/European Pressphoto AgencyCandy Crowley tries to control the debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

When George H.W. Bush looked at his watch in a 1992 debate with Bill Clinton and Ross Perot and absolutely bungled a question about how the national debt had affected him personally, he cemented the impression that he was out of touch with real Americans’ lives.

When Gerald Ford denied in 1976 that there was any “Soviet domination” of Eastern Europe, he cemented the impression that he was out of touch with pretty much everything.

Tonight, Mitt Romney may have had a similar moment, during a back-and-forth about the attack on the Benghazi Consulate.
Mr. Romney clearly thought he had a big opening and he moved in for the kill when Mr. Obama said he had called the attack a terrorist act the very next day, in a Rose Garden speech.

“I think it’s interesting the president just said something which is that on the day after the attack, he went in the Rose Garden and said that this was an act of terror.”

“That’s what I said,” Mr. Obama replied.

Mr. Romney: “I want to make sure we get that for the record, because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.”

At that point, Candy Crowley, the debate moderator, stepped in. “He did in fact, sir,” she said.

“Can you say that a little louder, Candy?” asked Mr. Obama.

Whoever coached Mr. Romney on that question did the candidate no favors. Here’s what the president said in the Rose Garden: “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.” A little purple– and the administration’s subsequent line on what happened was confusing–but he undeniably used the word “terror.”

The exchange left voters in the uncomfortable position of assuming that Mr. Romney either believes his own propaganda or doesn’t care whether what he says is true, which fits into the narrative that he’s willing to twist the truth for political gain.

Mr. Romney’s Rose Garden moment likely won’t have the same impact as Mr. Ford’s Soviet domination gaffe or Mr. Bush’s watch episode. (Those fumbles may have cost them their elections.) But it was riveting.